This section presents results and insights from the research and a few specific studies
The Alexander’s estuary suffers prolonged periods of hypoxia and anoxia near the bottom and even on the surface.
The oxygen stress is caused by the physical attributes of the estuary and especially by the high nutrient loads from treated sewage coming from the Palestinian authority.
Prolonged oxygen deficiencies hinder the health and functioning of the ecosystem.
Our findings demonstrate that even relatively clean treated water is not good enough and it is better to stop the effluents completely to enhance the water quality of the estuary.
The graph shows the percentage of oxygen saturation in the serface water (red line) and on the bottom (blue line) near the Michmoret bridge. We notice prolonged hypoxia and anoxia periods where the oxygen levels drop bellow 30% and even bellow 10% to zero. At the bottom graphs we see the difference between very low effluents in the estuary (B) to a period after high level treated water flowing through the estuary (C).
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